Events in Charleston

The number of insurgents at Pensacola rapidly increased, and the new Administration resolved to send relief to Fort Pickens. A small squadron was dispatched from New York for the purpose; and Lieutenant J. L. Worden of the navy was sent overland to Pensacola, with orders to Captain Adams, in command of some vessels off Fort Pickens, to throw reinforcements into that work immediately. Worden reached Pensacola on the 10th of April, where Colonel Braxton Bragg was in chief command of the Confederates. He had observed great excitement and preparations for war on his journey, and fearing arrest, Worden had made himself well acquainted with the contents of the despatches, and then tore them up. He frankly told Bragg that he was sent by his Government with orders to Captain Adams, and that they were not written, but oral. That officer gave the lieutenant a pass for his destination. His message was timely delivered, for Bragg was on the point of attacking the fort. The reinforcements were thrown in, and the plan was foiled. Worden returned to Pensacola, and was permitted to take the cars for Montgomery, Alabama, when Bragg was informed by a spy that Fort Pickens had been reinforced. Mortified by his stupid blunder in allowing Worden to pass to and from the squadron, he violated truth and honor by telegraphing to the Confederate government at Montgomery that Worden had practiced falsehood and deception in gaining access to the squadron, and recommended his arrest. He was seized on the 15th of April and cast into the common jail, where he was treated with scorn by the Confederates, and kept a prisoner until November following, when he was exchanged. Worden had acted with the utmost frankness and the nicest sense of honor in the whole matter. He was the first prisoner-of-war held by the insurgents.

A few days after the reinforcement of Fort Pickens, two vessels, bearing several hundred troops and ample supplies, under Colonel Harvey Brown, appeared there, when Lieutenant Slemmer and his brave little band, worn down by fatigue and continued watchfulness, were relieved, and sent to Fort Hamilton, near New York, to rest. The grateful people honored them. The President gave Slemmer the commission of major, and afterward of brigadier; and the New York Chamber of Commerce also caused a series of bronze medals to be struck as presents to the commander and men of the brave little garrison. Reinforcements continued to be sent to Fort Pickens; and the number of the insurgents intended to assail it also increased, until, in May, they numbered over seven thousand. But events of very little importance occurred in that vicinity during the ensuing summer.

On Sunday morning, the 14th of April, 1861, the tidings of the dishonoring of the National standard in Charleston harbor, was telegraphed over the land, and created the wildest excitement everywhere, North and South. The loyal people were indignant; the disloyal people were jubilant. I was in New Orleans on that day. The sound of Sabbath-bells was mingled with the martial-music of fife and drum. Church-goers and troops in bright uniforms were seen in almost every street, the latter gathering for an immediate expedition against Fort Pickens. All faces beamed with gladness, and the pulpits overflowed with words of loyalty to the Southern Confederacy. At the North, the loyal hearts of the patriotic people beat vehemently with emotion; and everywhere the momentous question was asked, What next? It was not long unanswered, for within twenty-four hours after Major Anderson went out of Fort Sumter, the President of the United States issued a stirring call for seventy-five thousand troops to suppress the rising rebellion.

In that proclamation (April 15, 1861) the President declared that for some time combinations in several of the States (which he named), "too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law," had opposed the laws of the Republic; and therefore, by virtue of power vested in him, he called out the militia of the Union, to the number just mentioned, and appealed to the patriotism of the people in support of the measure. In the same proclamation he summoned the National Congress to meet at Washington city on the 4th day of July next ensuring, to consider the crisis. At the same time the Secretary of War sent a despatch to the governors of all the States excepting those mentioned in the President's proclamation, requesting each of them to cause to be detailed from the militia of his State the quota designated in a table which he appended, to serve as infantry or riflemen for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged.